News

IT for government and public sector

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  Last council finally connects to PSN

  The last remaining local authority has moved to the public services network (PSN) almost six months past the deadline

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  Investment needed to tackle digital divide, says Go ON UK

  Investment on internet infrastructure needs to be complemented by skills investment, says Go ON UK deputy CEO

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  Labour activists call for £10bn plan to make UK a leading digital economy

  Digital activists in the Labour party want it to commit to a £10bn, five-year plan to make the UK the world’s leading digital economy

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  Google to build giant '40-football pitch' datacentre in the Netherlands

  Google will invest €600m to build a giant, 120-megawatt datacentre in the Netherlands

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  Energy IT pros confident on breach detection, survey shows

  Two-thirds of energy sector IT professionals claim they could detect a breach within a week, a survey shows

• September 23, 2014 23 Sep'14

  UKtech50 2014 - help us choose the 50 most influential people in UK IT

  Computer Weekly is launching the fifth annual UKtech50, our definitive list of the movers and shakers in UK IT - tell us your nominations

• September 22, 2014 22 Sep'14

  Government urges more SMEs to apply for broadband vouchers

  With six months left to apply, businesses are being urged to claim their share of the £100m government broadband grants

• September 19, 2014 19 Sep'14

  Peterborough City Council launches cloud-enabled technology strategy

  Peterborough City Council is launching a cloud-enabled technology strategy to improve how it connects with citizens

• September 19, 2014 19 Sep'14

  How the HSCIC rebuilt NHS Spine

  The Health and Social Care Information Centre has successfully upgraded the infrastructure behind the NHS Spine platform

• September 19, 2014 19 Sep'14

  Interview: Government digital chief Mike Bracken on the next five years

  The Government Digital Service celebrates its third anniversary soon, but has plenty more challenges ahead to change Whitehall thinking

• September 18, 2014 18 Sep'14

  US military logistics arm breached by China-linked hackers

  US government inquiry finds Transcomm contractors had their systems hacked by groups linked to the Chinese government

• September 18, 2014 18 Sep'14

  Scottish Fire and Rescue deploys CRM to ensure FOI compliance

  Fire service uses customer relationship management software to manage internal processes and freedom of information requests

• September 18, 2014 18 Sep'14

  Government digital chief signals move away from 'tower model' approach to IT outsourcing

  Government digital chief Mike Bracken has signalled a move away from the “tower model” approach to IT outsourcing

• September 18, 2014 18 Sep'14

  Interview: Chi Onwurah, Labour shadow Cabinet Office minister

  Labour's shadow cabinet minister, Chi Onwurah, offers a unique connection between technology and politics

• September 18, 2014 18 Sep'14

  Interview: Wood Mackenzie CTO John Linwood on life after the BBC

  John Linwood, former chief technology officer at the BBC, talks about winning a high-profile employment tribunal and his new job at Wood Mackenzie

• September 17, 2014 17 Sep'14

  Risk management key to cyber strategy, says BP

  Cyber attacks constitute a group-level risk that is managed as part of BP’s standard set of risk management processes, says group chief

• September 17, 2014 17 Sep'14

  Alarming level of cyber threat set for a decade, says Nato

  The alarming level of cyber threats organisations currently face is unlikely to fall for the next ten years, says Nato

• September 17, 2014 17 Sep'14

  UK political parties expand digital campaigns

  The three main political parties expand their digital campaign messages following the launch of TechUK's digital manifesto

• September 16, 2014 16 Sep'14

  Vince Cable announces £4m funding for cyber security SMEs

  Business Secretary Vince Cable announces £4m government funding for a competition to help SMEs develop ideas for countering cyber threats

• September 16, 2014 16 Sep'14

  GDS unveils 'Gov.UK Verify' public services identity assurance scheme

  The Government Digital Service (GDS) debuts a system to prove users’ identities when using public services online, branded as 'Gov.UK Verify'

• September 16, 2014 16 Sep'14

  Government seeks £110,000 director for Parliamentary Digital Service

  Parliament is recruiting a digital director for the revamped Parliamentary Digital Service in a role offering a salary of £110,000 a year

• September 16, 2014 16 Sep'14

  TechUK tasks future government with making the UK a digital leader

  TechUK has launched a digital manifesto detailing how the next government must turn the UK in a digital leader

• September 15, 2014 15 Sep'14

  CIO interview: Stephen Hale, head of digital, Department of Health

  “I want to make digital less of a novelty,” says the Department of Health’s head of digital Stephen Hale

• September 15, 2014 15 Sep'14

  Why AWS is being held back in the public sector

  Public sector is a fast growing area of the Amazon Web Services cloud business. Yet it is often not seen as a first choice in government

• September 15, 2014 15 Sep'14

  WikiLeaks reveals Australian police are using surveillance software

  Australia's New South Wales police are using spyware that has been linked to repressive states, according to leaked documents

• September 12, 2014 12 Sep'14

  Claims against Post Office IT system approach completion

  Investigation into sub-postmaster claims against the Post Office over problems with its Horizon accounting system coming to an end

• September 12, 2014 12 Sep'14

  Yahoo wins bid to shine more light on US surveillance

  Yahoo has won the release of 1,500 pages of documents from a key 2008 case in a secretive US surveillance court

• September 11, 2014 11 Sep'14

  Hague reassures MPs on Office 365 data storage as Microsoft ordered to hand over email data

  UK government reassures MPs parliamentary data is safe on Microsoft servers as US judge finds Microsoft in contempt for refusing to hand over data

• September 10, 2014 10 Sep'14

  EU opens public consultation on cloud computing

  The European Commission has launched a consultation on cloud computing to help define future research priorities

• September 10, 2014 10 Sep'14

  Smartphones could render smartmeter in-home display redundant

  The Public Accounts Committee’s latest report on smartmeters has warned that the government risks being locked into technology

• September 10, 2014 10 Sep'14

  Act now on IoT security, says Beecham Research

  Industry must act now on security for the internet of things before its too late, says Beecham Research

• September 10, 2014 10 Sep'14

  Fresh questions raised over Post Office IT system's role in fraud cases

  A leaked report has revealed more details about the role of the Horizon accounting system in sub-postmaster fraud cases

• September 09, 2014 09 Sep'14

  Wider public sector needs better understanding of cyber security

  Local government, the NHS and the wider public sector needs to have a better understanding of the threat of cyber security

• September 09, 2014 09 Sep'14

  Cyber attack simulation key to get top management buy-in

  Plunging top managers into the middle of a cyber attack is the best way to get their attention, says a cyber crime expert

• September 08, 2014 08 Sep'14

  Ransomware on the rise, warns cyber threat report

  The first half of 2014 saw an increase in online attacks that lock up user data and hold it for ransom, reports F-Secure Labs

• September 05, 2014 05 Sep'14

  Unlikely bedfellows: Nato and business

  What has a military organisation like Nato got to do with private-sector business?

• September 05, 2014 05 Sep'14

  'Bungled' Army 2020 IT recruitment contract loses £70m of savings

  Mismanaged IT contracts lead to further setbacks in Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Army recruitment drive

• September 04, 2014 04 Sep'14

  Ucas blends rival cloud services from AWS and Microsoft for results day

  Ucas IT platform uses both AWS and Microsoft Azure services to scale up the infrastructure for a few hours during peak demand

• September 04, 2014 04 Sep'14

  Ministry of Defence seeking IT leaders for six-figure salaries in IT overhaul

  The Ministry of Defence is recruiting IT leaders as part of an overhaul of the way the armed forces manage their IT systems

• September 04, 2014 04 Sep'14

  Home Office has "long way to go” to fix police IT and procurement

  Police IT is going to take a long time to fix, according to home secretary Theresa May

• September 04, 2014 04 Sep'14

  Ordnance Survey to release open data on green spaces

  The Ordnance Survey is to release information and statistics on green space in England and Wales as open data

• September 04, 2014 04 Sep'14

  NHS England informatics head wants more CCIOs

  NHS England director wants to see a chief clinical information officer in every NHS provider and clinical commissioning group

• September 03, 2014 03 Sep'14

  DWP appoints Mayank Prakash as new technology director

  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has appointed Mayank Prakash as its new director general of technology

• September 03, 2014 03 Sep'14

  Nato to adopt new cyber defence policy

  Nato leaders are expected to accept there is no distinction between cyber attack and physical attack at the organisation’s 2014 summit

• September 03, 2014 03 Sep'14

  Prescribing digital videos could help NHS deal with chronic diseases

  Videos and digital interactions with patients are being prescribed as part of a pre-trial to see if they encourage patients with chronic diseases to better manage their conditions

• September 03, 2014 03 Sep'14

  Aberdeen to get city-wide gigabit network

  Aberdeen will this month become Scotland’s first city to be fully covered by a high speed fibre network

• September 03, 2014 03 Sep'14

  HSCIC and MOJ first to procure on government managed email framework

  The Health & Social Care Information Commission and the Ministry of Justice to procure managed email using a new government framework

• September 02, 2014 02 Sep'14

  Natural Resources Wales takes to the cloud with Microsoft

  The Welsh envoronmental public body adopts Microsoft cloud functionalities including Office 365 and Azure

• September 02, 2014 02 Sep'14

  Telstra reports hefty jump in government data access demands

  Australian telecommunications company Telstra reports a substantial increase in government data access requests

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  Applications open for government Digital and Technology Fast Stream

  Applications are open for the 2015 Civil Service Fast Stream, which offers digital graduates an opportunity to work in government

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  Suppliers discuss Emergency Services Network with Home Office

  Suppliers have attended an event held by the Home Office to discuss details of the new Emergency Services Network

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  Nato set to clarify stance on cyber attack

  Leaders will discuss changing the mission of collective defence with respect to cyber attack at this week’s Nato summit

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  Rolls-Royce CIO joins HMRC as non-executive director

  Rolls-Royce CIO Simon Ricketts has been appointed non-executive director of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  Local government calls for a local GDS

  Local government needs a local version of the Government Digital Service (GDS) with dedicated in-house digital teams, says Socitm

• September 01, 2014 01 Sep'14

  UK helps found international cyber crime taskforce

  The UK is a founding member of the international cyber crime taskforce at Europol's European Cybercrime Centre

• August 29, 2014 29 Aug'14

  Shrivenham hosts bootcamp for Cyber Security Challenge UK

  Civilians and military personnel have completed an intensive cyber security bootcamp at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham

• August 29, 2014 29 Aug'14

  Bristol council migrates to the cloud to aid mandated cost savings

  Bristol City Council is moving its ICT estate onto the cloud to help meet wider cost savings mandated by the government

• August 29, 2014 29 Aug'14

  GDS launches research lab for testing digital services

  The Government Digital Service (GDS) has revealed a digital research lab to allow departments to test their online services

• August 29, 2014 29 Aug'14

  BT faces further investigation over link to US drone network

  The UK government has reopened a complaint against BT after a Computer Weekly investigation into links supporting US drone strikes

• August 28, 2014 28 Aug'14

  Government appoints former Credit Suisse CIO as deputy CTO

  The government has appointed former Credit Suisse CIO Magnus Falk as its new deputy chief technology officer (CTO)

• August 28, 2014 28 Aug'14

  Poor data quality hindering government open data programme

  Poor data quality is hindering the UK government's open data programme, intended to reform the public sector

• August 28, 2014 28 Aug'14

  Scottish government signs Virgin voice deal

  Scottish government to procure fixed voice and other communications services from Virgin Media Business

• August 27, 2014 27 Aug'14

  BDUK arrives on the Isle of Wight

  The Isle of Wight inaugurates its first rural fibre cabinet delivered by BDUK as the project finally crosses the Solent

• August 27, 2014 27 Aug'14

  Foreign Office spends £92,574 on social media training

  The FCO has spent £92,574 on social media training since 2010, according to a freedom of information request

• August 27, 2014 27 Aug'14

  Government sees 820,000 voters register online

  Over one million UK citizens have registered to vote over the last two months, with around 820,000 opting for a new online registration service

• August 26, 2014 26 Aug'14

  Central Bedfordshire Council links up with Essex for PSN services

  Central Bedfordshire Council is to run services over Essex County Council’s NGN following Daisy Updata deal

• August 26, 2014 26 Aug'14

  Local authorities can improve data protection, says ICO audit

  There is room for improvement in how local authorities protect personal data, says an audit report by the ICO

• August 26, 2014 26 Aug'14

  Land Registry automates document registration using Abbyy

  The Land Registry has been automating the way changes are made to its register which documents the ownership of land in England and Wales

• August 26, 2014 26 Aug'14

  ICO fines Ministry of Justice £180,000

  The ICO has fined the Ministry of Justice £180,000 for “serious failings” in personal data protection at prisons in England and Wales

• August 26, 2014 26 Aug'14

  The internet of things: Britain's next big opportunity

  Tech City's Gerard Grech talks about the IoT phenomenon and a startup competition that is intended to accelerate technologies

• August 22, 2014 22 Aug'14

  GCHQ produces BYOD guidelines for organisations

  GCHQ's IT security arm provides guidance to organisations who want to allow employees to use personal devices at work

• August 22, 2014 22 Aug'14

  Can IT change the course of history? The story of Graham Tottle, the IT guy trapped in Iraq

  Rarely does an IT worker affect history, but in 1990 Graham Tottle was in Saddam Hussein’s HQ at the start of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait

• August 22, 2014 22 Aug'14

  Tor Project claims spy leaks help maintain anonymity

  A developer of the Tor browser for anonymous web surfing claims some spies are helping fix flaws exploited by state intelligence agencies

• August 21, 2014 21 Aug'14

  Case study: Borough of Poole uses Huddle for child adoption meetings

  The Borough of Poole has been using Huddle to enable local government teams to collaborate securely on issues of child welfare

• August 21, 2014 21 Aug'14

  Nest systems support one million members

  The National Employment Savings Trust has enrolled more than one million people to its administration system

• August 21, 2014 21 Aug'14

  Land Registry digital project at risk after senior IT leaders depart

  A major digital project at the Land Registry is at risk after two key executives on the programme left due to their tax arrangements

• August 21, 2014 21 Aug'14

  Load balancing supports Kent County Council's VDI project

  Kent County Council picks Kemp Technologies load balancers to support a deployment of VMware Horizon View and Workspace across its estate

• August 21, 2014 21 Aug'14

  IBM software-defined storage chosen for molecular research

  Molecular research centre DESY will use IBM software-defined storage to handle growing data load.

• August 20, 2014 20 Aug'14

  East Midlands gets cyber threat sharing node

  The Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership has launched the first regional node in the East Midlands

• August 19, 2014 19 Aug'14

  US nuclear regulator hacked several times over three years

  The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been hacked three times in the past three years, a report has revealed

• August 19, 2014 19 Aug'14

  Government major projects watchdog needs more powers, says MPs

  Major Projects Authority needs stronger powers to improve project delivery across government, say MPs

• August 19, 2014 19 Aug'14

  Kent County Council hands six-year PSN contract to Daisy Updata

  Daisy Updata Communications to manage Kent’s public services network (PSN) deployment across more than 1,300 sites

• August 18, 2014 18 Aug'14

  Labour commits to GDS and says it wants to keep contractors

  The Labour party has said it will build on GDS's work and retain the team's staff if it wins the 2015 general election

• August 18, 2014 18 Aug'14

  Raytheon wins £224m from Home Office over e-Borders cancellation

  Tribunal says Home Office unlawfully terminated a contract with Raytheon Systems Limited over its e-Borders programme

• August 18, 2014 18 Aug'14

  MoD sponsors cyber defence automation competition

  The Ministry of Defence has announced £2m funding for a competition to find innovative ways of automating cyber defences

• August 14, 2014 14 Aug'14

  A-Level results 2014: ICT students and grades fall slightly

  The GCE A-Level results showed that 13,650 people sat A-Level computing and ICT, of which 8,301 attained grades A*-C

• August 13, 2014 13 Aug'14

  Universal Credit uptake slows to lowest since infancy

  The rollout of the Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP) troubled Universal Credit system has slowed to its lowest uptake since its infancy

• August 13, 2014 13 Aug'14

  Home Office pours £3.8m into shared service for biometric cards

  The Home Office has awarded a £3.8m contract to Thales for a service to support the production of Biometric Residence Permit cards

• August 12, 2014 12 Aug'14

  Citizens call for electronic GP medical records

  The majority of UK citizens want an electronic record of their GP medical data to be accessible by healthcare professionals

• August 12, 2014 12 Aug'14

  Land Registry aims to become a digital leader with help from GDS

  The Land Registry has launched a new programme called LR Connect which it hopes will digitally transform its business strategy

• August 12, 2014 12 Aug'14

  Technology simplifies big data for the human brain

  Researchers have created an immersive way for the brain to digest big data

• August 12, 2014 12 Aug'14

  60% of GDS staff contracts to expire within 12 months of general election

  Almost 60% of employees at the Government Digital Service (GDS) could be gone within 12 months of next year’s general election

• August 11, 2014 11 Aug'14

  Kirklees gets dark fibre injection for PSN deployment

  Kirklees Council’s PSN deployment to be enhanced with dark fibre connectivity following agreement between suppliers

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  BT picks up Welsh PSN contract

  BT gains control of Welsh government PSN broadband and IP services contract, ousting services provider Logicalis

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  Energy Saving Trust deploys Esri for Cognos to support policymakers

  The Energy Saving Trust, has deployed Esri for Cognos to provide instant access to its mapping analytics portal

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  Government breaks grip of IT oligopoly

  Figures for public sector software and IT services investments reveal a dwindling share for IT giants, but can the oligopoly be removed?

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  Joanna Shields becomes a peer

  Former Tech City CEO and the prime minister’s adviser on the digital economy, Joanna Shields, has been awarded a life peerage

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  Why John Linwood is not to blame for BBC’s failed technology project

  Former BBC CTO has won his case for unfair dismissal over the failed £100m DMI project, but what lessons can be learned?

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  European Medicines Agency signs €4.5m Serco contract for IT support

  The European Medicines Agency EMA has signed a €4.5m contract with Serco for an outsourced IT helpdesk

• August 08, 2014 08 Aug'14

  DCMS: BDUK roll-out hits million premises milestone

  Culture minister Sajid Javid insists the £1.7bn broadband delivery UK (BDUK) roll-out programme will hit coverage targets on schedule